We are always reasoning from the seen to the unseen.
 Ralph Waldo Emerson, Spiritual Laws (1841). copy citation

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Author Ralph Waldo Emerson
Source Spiritual Laws
Topic reason
Date 1841
Language English
Reference in "Essays: First Series"
Note
Weblink https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Essays:_First_Series/Spiritual_Laws

Context

“— it will find its level in all. Men feel and act the consequences of your doctrine, without being able to show how they follow. Show us an arc of the curve, and a good mathematician will find out the whole figure. We are always reasoning from the seen to the unseen. Hence the perfect intelligence that subsists between wise men of remote ages. A man cannot bury his meanings so deep in his book, but time and like-minded men will find them. Plato had a secret doctrine, had he?” source